Count Love

The chart above shows immigration protests in the United States
based on local news reports since January 20, 2017. Clicking on a specific
date will bring up a list of protests in support of immigration on that date.

In April, we compared protests for and
against gun control after the shooting in Parkland, FL and the massive
protests that followed. While there
were a few large protests for gun rights, advocates
for greater gun control overwhelmingly outnumbered those against
based on the number of protests and attendees. Given changes to
the country's policies and enforcement priorities with respect to immigration
over the last year and a half, we decided to take a closer look at immigration
protest trends across the country.

The map below shows protests for and against immigration in the United States
based on local news reports since January 20, 2017. Each marker's size represents
the relative number of attendees at an event, and events with fewer than 900
attendees are shown with the smallest marker. Blue markers indicate events in
support of immigration; yellow markers indicate the opposite.

Notably, every controversial policy change—banning travelers from Muslim countries,
ending DACA, switching to zero-tolerance enforcement—drove a spike in protest activity.
At the same time, the number of protest events and people protesting against
immigration is small by any measure. We’ve seen that on topics like guns
there are active voices protesting for and against greater gun control,
though many more for than against. This is substantially less so
the case for immigration. At a minimum,
it is odd to observe such a vast difference between our protests and our policies.